In recent years, there have been many debates about fat female bodies in the media. Fat women are often associated with moral failure, laziness and stupidity. Women’s fat bodies are loaded with negative meanings because of dominant negative attitudes. These attitudes tells fat women that they need to change their bodies, in order to fit in a society where beauty standards are characterized with certain ideals around skinnyness. In this study, i will show how fat female bodies are being discussed on Flashback forum. I’m using a gender and intersectionalitative perspective. Anti-feminists uses Flashback forum to express sexist, homophobic and racist comments about different authors of feminist and body-positive blogs. These feminist bloggers are questioning the oppression that fat women faces in their everyday lives, and they wan’t to make all bodies visable by countering prejudice about fat female bodies. When does Flashback take threats against female feminist bloggers seriously?

The original purpose of this study was to answer the following research question: How do women and girls navigate the HIV/AIDS situation in Mozambique? I used constructivist grounded theory, combined with the African philosophy of Ubuntu, as the approach to guide this study. I sensitized myself theoretically with the critical feminist theory of intersectionality to ensure I recognized important data during my collection process. Because grounded theory studies are developed inductively from a corpus of data, and evolve as data collection takes place, I discovered that participants’ concerns went beyond HIV/AIDS and involved a bundle of oppressions. Therefore the problem that participants faced, at a broad conceptual level, was gender oppression. As a result, my study shifted slightly in that I aimed to understand how women and girls managed their lives in relation to gender oppression, how they become socialized into a context that systematically makes room for social and political dominance over them, how they cope with the manifestations of dominance, and how, if ever, they control the situational and characteristic realities of gender oppression. Consequently, I developed a grounded theory about how women and girls manage gender oppression in Mozambique. The basic social process in this theory is called Putting On and Taking Off the Capulana, which can be understood as how women and girls become socialized into gender oppression in Mozambique and how they inch their way out. The four main categories that comprise this theory include: (a) Putting On the Capulana, (b) Turning a Blind Eye, (c) Playing the Game, and (d) Taking Off the Capulana. Second level processes under Putting On the Capulana, for example, include processes such as Adapting to Patriarchy and Living with Violence, which demonstrate how women and girls navigate a context saturated in oppressions. Third level processes, such as being robbed of sexual self-determination and accepting inferiority, explain the consequences of these processes that women and girls are forced to live through. This is a theory, grounded in the data and privileging the voices of women and girls in Mozambique, that is reflective of a constructivist feminist approach and Ubuntu philosophy. I argue that this study provides a nuanced understanding of the complexity of gender oppression in Mozambique, which can assist in developing relevant and meaningful policy. / Graduate / 0569 / 0573 / 0733 / lntomm@uvic.ca

The purpose of this study was to examine whether and how the social services in the municipality of Falun is managing social work related to prostitution. It is a qualitative study based on three focus group interviews conducted in parts of the social services organization in the municipality of Falun. The empirical data collected was analyzed from an intersectional perspective. Several distinct findings emerged from the study. Social work against prostitution does not exist in the social services organization in the municipality of Falun. The organization possesses no procedures or guidelines for this kind of work, and no preventive work or cooperation with other organizations is carried out. It also emerged, that several social work officers had a stereotype image of who a potential sex- seller could be. This fact may influence who would be able to get any support from social services regarding to this social problem. / Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om och hur Falu kommuns socialtjänst arbetar gällande prostitution. Studien är en kvalitativ studie som baseras på tre fokusgruppsintervjuer utförda på delar av Falu kommuns socialtjänst. Den insamlade empirin har analyserats utifrån ett intersektionalitetsperspektiv. Resultatet av studien var entydigt, arbete riktat mot prostitution förekommer inte på socialtjänsten i Falu kommun. Verksamheten besitter inga rutiner eller riktlinjer för detta arbete, och inget förebyggande arbete eller något samarbete med andra organisationer eller myndigheter utförs. Det framkom även att handläggarna hade en stereotyp bild av vem som är en potentiell sexsäljare, något som kan komma att påverka vem som skulle kunna få ett eventuellt stöd från socialtjänsten gällande denna problematik.

This study aims to increase awareness of the portrayal of refugees in Swedish media. In order to achieve this we performed a content analysis of the articles found in the newspaper Dagens Nyheter. Through a strategic selection we chose six news articles published during the fall of 2015 that depicted various refugees’ destinies. We studied the articles in several steps and identified the frames used in the presentation and portayal of the refugees. These frames consisted of roles, characteristics and selected quotations in which the persons were assigned. In the analyzed articles we found that Dagens Nyheter tends to portray refugees in a relatively generalized way, where different categories of refugees are similarly portayed and no refugee gets the role of a hero. They are portrayed in a way that makes them look like they are subordinate to aid organisations and authorities and as if they are in need of help. However, children and elderly tend to be discriminated since they in many cases are being excluded or assigned a subordinate role compared to other categories of refugees.

My dissertation uses multiple methods to introduce the novel concept of racial sexual preference - individuals’ preferences for a sexual or romantic partner based on race. This project builds on an insight from Daryl Bem’s “Exotic Becomes Erotic” theory of sexual development: a diverse set of sexual preferences exists beyond gender. I argue the very real social consequences of race make preferences in regard to it (sexual or otherwise) an important area for systematic study. I focus on gay male subculture, which has uniquely developed a terminology for expressing racial preferences. I investigate how racial preference is understood and organized within this subculture by collecting gay men’s sexual history narratives of cross-race preferences through interviews, as well as collecting archival materials from the national organization Black and White Men Together (BWMT) that pertain to racial sexual preference. I find that racial sexual preferences are experienced early in the life course and are consistent over time, similarly to experiences of gendered sexual orientation, though generally less exclusive. Unlike gendered sexual orientation, identities are unlikely to form in relation to racial sexual preferences because there is little ideological structure to support expression of cross-race racial preferences. Even within the organizational structure of BWMT, founded to support racial sexual preferences, over time I find a decrease in discourse and identity related to racial sexual preference (in favor of a colorblind ideal of preferences). I end my study by using the concept of racial sexual preference, supported by the findings from interviews and case study, to build on and challenge the theoretical work of Daryl Bem, Lisa Diamond, and James Giles in the area of sexual development and desire.

This thesis explores young children's constructions of social identities and the implications these may have in young children's everyday lives at nursery. One of the unique elements of this thesis is the multiple and intersectional approach that it adopts while exploring very young children‘s social identities and peer relations. It also explores the links between children's experiences and views with educators' social justice and equity pedagogies. Recent attention has been given to the importance of early childhood and young children's rights and participation in theory, research and policy. In the field of social identities, there has been a growing need for further research to explore the contextual, fluid, complex and intersected nature of young children's social identities, moving away from 'static' and 'fixed' notions of identity. Particular gaps have also been identified in relation to exploring age as part of social identity, to exploring cultural aspects of ethnicity and lastly to exploring multiple understandings of parts of social identities (e.g. multiple 'masculinities' and 'femininities') in early childhood. There has also been a need for further research to explore how young children‘s intersected social identities may impact on pedagogies. This thesis, therefore, seeks to explore the above, basing the analysis on a one year ethnographic and participatory approach which was conducted in two nursery settings in Scotland, one predominantly white and one multi-ethnic. It draws on a plethora of rich and in-depth conversations and experiences with young children, educators and parents/caregivers to suggest the complex, dynamic, context-specific, fluid but also 'experientially fixed' and intersected nature of children's social identities and relationships, and to acknowledge the challenges that are raised both for early childhood practice and policy. It suggests that children construct multiple and complex social identities which are both fluid and experientially 'fixed', engage in dynamic social relationships and express complex and multiple implicit/explicit discriminatory attitudes, which educators are unaware of or choose to disregard. In most cases, age and gender were part of an overt and explicit identification, and were explicitly and overtly discussed as factors of exclusion by both educators and children. In contrast, ethnicity involved a much more complex process. Although ethnicity was often part of an 'ethnic habitus', variations occurred in relation to the extent to which children developed a strong, explicit and overt ethnic identification. Ethnicity was also considered a rather 'taboo' subject of reference regarding exclusion. Moreover, this thesis suggests that discourses of ‗sameness‘, ‗normalities‘ and difference linked to constructions of social identity were salient in children's lives. Common social identities often promoted positive feelings of belonging and reinforced positive feelings of group membership and self identities between children. Strong and positive feelings of self and group identity and difference, or else ‗the other‘, although not exclusively, were very much considered the basis for exclusion and discrimination. However, complexities arose when the concept of the ‗other‘ changed, depending on the context. Difference was seen more positively by children when it constituted part of what was considered 'norm' or dominant. Traditional developmental approaches and children‘s rights-based approaches seem to influence educators‘ practice; however, irrespectively of the educational approach, educators tend to disregard implicit/explicit discrimination that is evident in children's lives. 'Too young to notice' and 'no problem here' attitudes seem to dominate educators‘ practice and raise limitations in dealing adequately with social justice and equity issues. Firstly, this thesis suggests the need to move away from 'dualistic' and oppositional dichotomies that seem to have dominated contemporary research and theory, both in relation to theorising children‘s social identities (e.g. 'fixed'/fluid) and theorisations of childhood (e.g. agents and mature / interdependent and immature). Secondly, there is a need for early childhood pedagogies, practices and policy to 'listen' more actively and closely to young children and to engage with the complex and dynamic nature of their social relationships. It is thus suggested that current early childhood practice should actively promote children-rights based approaches. At the same time, this thesis considers whether we should be moving towards a children‘s human rights-based approach, which promotes children‘s rights and goes beyond children's participatory rights, engaging more actively with issues around fairness, unfairness and respect. This thesis also argues for proactive, anti-discriminatory, reflexive and interventionist social justice and equity approaches in early childhood. Thirdly, there is a general challenge both in policy and practice regarding balancing between universalism (collective identities) and specificity (diversity).

The dissertation rests firstly on the author's previously published work (German, 1989; German, 2007; German, 2013) which attempted to analyse the position of women in British society in terms of their relationship to class, work and oppression; and secondly on original research in the form of interviews with a number of Second Wave and Third Wave feminists, which aimed to elicit their responses to a variety of questions in relation to class, women's role at work, and feminist activism. The aim is to contrast the expectations and influences of the different generations of feminists in order to understand what has motivated them and what issues continued to be important for them. The research investigates differences between the two groups of women, considering the extent to which this reflects the different economic and social circumstances in which they were shaped politically. It argues that there is a strong ideological commitment to women's equality across the different age groups, itself based on the inability of successive generations to achieve full equality, but that there are considerable differences of approach to activism and campaigning priorities, as well as to some theoretical questions. It considers the extent to which the Third Wave reflects a fragmentation from Second Wave approaches. It argues that the continued centrality of class in understanding women's oppression and other forms of oppression is related to the discrepancy between the expectations of oppressed groups for equality and capitalism's structural inability to deliver such equality.

This study concerns 28 Roman Iron Age Germanic burial grounds located in proximity to the river Elbe (dt. "Elbegermanen"). Situated in the northern German states Brandenburg, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein and dated 0-300 AD (Earlier Roman Imperial Period); the sites primarily consist of urn burials and have been interpreted as separated by gender. Although a debated issue in German archaeology, critical questions derived from theoretical problematization have usually been omitted from the discourse. This study aims to discuss gender theory to address this research gap. Geographical patterns have been explored through a spatial analysis and reconstruction of the Roman Imperial landscape. Two sites are compared in case studies and the end results connect the theoretical discussions and GIS-analysis. The results show that the combination of a large-scale regional analysis and small-scale analysis of specific sites is beneficial in order to acknowledge the varieties and move beyond the interpretations that dominate the prevalent discourse.

This essay looks to examine how eight religious women within Sunni Islam and Conservative Judaism in Sweden perceive their place in the religious community. The essay in itself rests on the theories of social constructionism and intersectionality, along with a qualitative interview study conducted with the eight different women. The results show that the women have very different opinion in regards to their thoughts about their place in the religious community depending on a variety of pre-consisting social factors which includes (but are not limited by) religious background, ethnicity and culture. Some women feel satisfied with their place in the religious community and in society while others call for a change to be made both in the religious community they belong to and in the society they live in.

As wild edibles gain in popularity both on restaurant menus and as a form of recreation through their collection, research on contemporary foragers/wildcrafters/gatherers of wild edibles has so increased from varied disciplinary perspectives. Through an exploration of gatherers in Vermont, I examine the relationships between practice and identity. By employing intersectionality through feminist ethnographic methods, this research recognizes the complex intersections of individuals' identities that challenge a more simplified, additive approach to definitions of race, class, gender and the myriad identities that inform one's experience of privilege and oppression. As prior scholarship has established, people from diverse ethnicities, genders, religions, class affiliations, rural and urban livelihoods, and ages gather wild edibles. This thesis draws connections between the intersectional identities of gatherers and the diversity of their gathering practices. This project includes a discussion of how intersectionality may be applied and employed as analytical theory and as methodological foundation to better approach connections between identity and practice. Key questions driving the analysis are: what are the intersectional identities of gatherers of wild edibles in Vermont, and to what extent are these intersectional identities informing, or informed by, harvest and post-harvest practices? This research contributes to scholarship on foragers from a qualitative methodological perspective and attempts to support the body of literature on intersectionality as methodology as well as research that focuses on the connections between people, practice, and wild foods.